News / Washington caps Chicago Airport flights to avert system breakdown

ID 85572069 © Alexey Novikov | Dreamstime.com

Fearing another meltdown in airport operations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has imposed a ceiling on flights at Chicago O’Hare, the busiest US airport, this summer.

And at least one forwarder is already exploring alternative routings, mindful of recent episodes that brought operations at major gateways to a crawl.

The regulator has slashed more than 300 daily Chicago flights from the airlines’ summer schedules, with flights limited to 2,708 daily operations between 17 May until 24 October, cancelling what would have translated into a 14.9% increase in operations over the 2,680 flights registered last summer.

US transportation secretary Duffy described the planned schedules as unrealistic.

According to the FAA, the new threshold can allow capacity maximisation without degrading punctuality, which averaged 75% last year as O’Hare limped through the summer. Only 56% of departures and 58% of arrivals were on time, triggering cascading delays in national networks.

Operations at the airport will be impeded this summer by closures of taxiways caused by construction. However, this is but one among a cocktail of factors that have played havoc with airline schedules, affecting thousands of flights across the US.

The national air traffic control (ATC) system has been described as “hopelessly antiquated” and requiring costly and lengthy modernisation. Delays and cancellations build up rapidly because airline schedules have been condensed to minimal buffers between flights, and staffing levels in ATC and the Transportation Security Agency have been woefully inadequate, while travel demand kept rising. Thus, extreme weather conditions and government shutdowns trigger waves of delays and cancellations.

And O’Hare is not alone. In March, the FAA had to halt flights serving the Washington airports twice for more than an hour, blaming problems with ageing technology. A trio of ATC system failures within little over a week caused a massive meltdown at Newark Liberty Airport last May, which was compounded by inadequate ATC staffing levels and high traffic volumes.

In light of these conditions, efforts to ease the pressure at one airport have relatively minor impact, one observer warned.

The FAA’s measures at O’Hare are widely viewed as an effort to rein in the rapid expansion of United Airlines and American Airlines, which has been dubbed a ‘capacity race‘. Both carriers have welcomed the regulator’s move and plan to announce their decisions on schedule reductions after studying the FAA order.

According to one source, an internal paper at American indicates that the airline would have to cut no more than 40 daily flights, whereas United may have to axe as many as 200 arrivals and departures.

Observers and forwarders expect the cuts to play out primarily in airlines’ domestic networks using narrowbody aircraft, while leaving international flights and domestic trunk routes untouched. Nevertheless, international routes will be impacted, noted Bob Imbriani, EVP international at Team Worldwide.

For one thing, it affects the planning of international moves, he added. Connectivity is another potential stumbling block for shipments that are routed via Chicago using connecting flights.

Team has been talking with airports that can serve as alternatives to O’Hare and has planned trial shipments through these to establish their viability.

The problems at Newark last year forced Team to avoid the airport, Mr Imbriani recalled. In the New York area this was no big challenge, given several alternatives like JFK or Boston Logan. International gateways that are far from alternative options are a headache, he said.

Some relief on the overburdened US air travel market could come from the repercussions of the conflict in the Middle East. A steep increase in inflation, coupled with soaring ticket prices, could stifle demand and trigger reductions in airline schedules. In some cases airlines may cut back on their operations because of the high fuel cost.

Meanwhile, in Europe Lufthansa has announced plans to cut 20,000 short-haul flights this summer, as high fuel prices have made journeys “unprofitable”.

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